AFTER a disappointing year Shelthorpe’s Mixed Martial Arts fighter Jim Wallhead is still hoping to crack the big time with a world title fight in Nottingham to come next month.

AFTER a disappointing year Shelthorpe’s Mixed Martial Arts fighter Jim Wallhead is still hoping to crack the big time with a world title fight in Nottingham to come next month.

Wallhead will take on Spanish Champion Manuel Garcia at the Victoria Sports Centre hoping to kick start what has so far been a frustrating 2009 of bad luck and illness.

This year the 25-year-old father of one had been hoping to break into the UFC or to become a reality TV star on the popular American programme Ultimate Fighter.

“It would have set me up for life with the money and publicity it would have generated,” Wallhead said of the programme which is watched by millions in the States with the winner earning a six figure UFC contract. “The programme makers told me they were interested and that I should hold on talking to the UFC directly to go on the show.

“But then at the last minute it didn’t happen.”

Wallhead was then supposed to go to Tokyo to fight Hidehiko Hasegawa in April as Britain’s representitive in the M-1 Challenge. However disaster struck.

“I was training with Dan Harding in Loughborough who was set for the UFC when I caught flu,” he said. “I decided to keep training when I shouldn’t have done. I developed chronic fatigue syndrome and basically just spent 10 days in bed not eating or moving.

“By the time I was perfectly recovered and back healthy it was six weeks later. I learnt a valuable lesson not to train too hard.”

After returning to full fitness Wallhead took part and won in his only fight of the year so far, a first round three minute knockout of Brazillian Fabio Taldo at Doncaster’s ‘Ultimate Force’ event.

Now it’s all about pushing on from what has been a low point and he’s still not given up on fighting with the top MMA fighters in the world in the UFC. He’s even had fans set up petitions to get him into the prestigious championship.

“I’m unbeaten in my last five fights and three of those were against fighters who are in the top five of the world,” he explains. “I’ve had positive talks with the UFC and it’s just a case of raising my profile now and getting people talking about me.

“What better way to start than by beating Manuel Garcia.”

Tickets for the fight on September 5 at the Victoria Leisure Centre in Nottingham are available from Swanny’s Tattoo Studio on Ling Road.

Or for more information visit Jimmy’s website at www.jimmywallheadmma.co.uk